


Walking on Burning Coals

by luvsanime02



Series: Delete Winter [8]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Canonical Character Death, F/M, Gen, Language, Non-Graphic Rape/Non-Con, Torture, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-23
Updated: 2015-03-23
Packaged: 2018-03-19 08:18:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3602979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/luvsanime02/pseuds/luvsanime02
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eren chooses to put his trust in someone, but this is a mistake, and now they're all paying the price.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Walking on Burning Coals

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



**Disclaimer:** I don’t own Shingeki no Kyojin. That honor belongs to Isayama-sensei. I’m making no profit off of this fic.

########

 **Walking on Burning Coals** by luvsanime02

########

“You can trust me,” she said to him.

Eren had given up on trust a long time ago, but her eyes were kind and sincere. Still, he probably would never have agreed to talk with this prostitute at all if-

Well, things had changed recently. He’d been surviving before. Mikasa was safe. That was all Eren cared about, protecting her, but he couldn’t even do that anymore. Eren didn’t trust _himself_ any longer.

They needed to leave. Eren had to get Mikasa away before things got any worse, before she got pulled into his mess too. He just couldn’t figure out how they were going to survive on their own.

And then a woman dressed up as a ratty teenager slowly walked up to him.

He noticed her getting closer and debated on just running away, but he was curious about what she could possibly want with someone like him and why she was dressed like that. Her clothes didn’t disguise in any way to Eren that she was older, and not homeless, either.

Eren confronted her about that right away, and she looked surprised for a second, then sheepish. “It’s not really to trick you,” she said softly. He could tell that the way she talked and moved was all designed to put him at ease and his eyes narrowed at her in suspicion.

“What do you want?” he asked bluntly, not wanting to play games with her. He was so sick of games.

She laughed a little. “You remind me of someone,” she explained, but then got serious. “Look,” she said, “I’m- I work with a few other women a couple of streets away and they were talking the other day about this place.” She pointed to the building behind her where Eren and Mikasa lived, and Eren felt himself tense up on instinct.

Her hands rose up in the air to show she meant no harm, but Eren didn’t relax. “I just want to know if what I heard is true,” she rushed on to say. “Look, I know some people, okay? I want to help you, and any other kids who live here.”

That wasn’t what Eren had expected her to say at all. He blinked, and wanted to laugh himself. She wanted to _help_ him? The idea was pretty ridiculous. Still, he found himself hesitating and actually considering telling her what she wanted to know. By what she’d said, he assumed she was a prostitute, and Eren knew that with how often they were arrested and harassed many of them actually had contacts within the police force.

Eren didn’t know what to do.

“What’s your name?’ he asked without thinking, and then bit his lip waiting for an answer. Anyone could promise anything anonymously, but Eren had learned that when people gave out their real names it meant something. He watched her face closely for any deception.

She paused, hesitated, but then her eyes met his squarely and she answered. “I’m Petra Ral,” she introduced herself, even holding out her hand for Eren to shake.

He thought of Mikasa, and his hands clenched into fists, uncertain. He couldn’t just do _nothing_ any longer. Eren looked again into Petra’s warm brown eyes, and made a decision. He extended his hand to grasp hers firmly.

“Eren Jaeger,” he said. Then, taking a deep breath first, he started talking.

########

He’d chosen wrong.

Eren was very worried when all of the kids living in their building were herded out of their rooms and into the cellar. He gripped Mikasa’s hand tightly the whole time they were walking down the stairs. What was going on? Had someone found out that Eren had spoken to that prostitute? He was so scared.

And then some men Eren had never seen before dragged Petra’s beaten body into view.

Her clothes were torn, and one of her eyes was already haloed in a deep purple bruise. Her split lip was slowly trickling blood and she looked to be only half-conscious.

“A business associate of mine,” the woman in charge of them all spoke calmly into the silence, “helpfully informed me that one of my kids was talking to an undercover cop.”

Silence. No one moved or said a word. Mikasa’s hand was gripping his so hard that his knuckles were screaming under the strain.

Eren felt all of the breath in his body leave abruptly. That woman was a cop? He could hardly believe it. She looked so small and defenseless, especially now. Suddenly, he knew why they’d all been pulled out of their beds and told to come down here, and Eren didn’t know whether to scream or cry or just run away.

He was such a fucking idiot. He’d failed to save himself and Mikasa, and now he was basically forcing her to watch what was going to happen next. Eren wanted to look over at her face, to reassure her that everything was going to be okay, but he found that he couldn’t move his eyes from Petra’s body. He felt dizzy and sick. She’d been so nice to him.

“Whoever spoke with her can stop this at any time,” the woman continued, voice still carefully calm and controlled. Eren tried to ignore the terror crawling down his spine at the barely-restrained anger that he could hear underneath her tone. “She wouldn’t tell us who she was talking to, but maybe that fucking dumbass will want to speak up now and save her some more pain? We’ll kill her quickly if you fess up.”

Some of the younger kids who hadn’t yet grasped what was going to happen began to cry. Eren closed his eyes, but then forced himself to open them again and make himself watch.

He couldn’t speak up, but he could at least have the guts to witness what the officer went through to keep him safe.

As the beatings started back up, and Petra cried out, Eren almost said something. His body shook with the urge to yell out that he was the one, anything to stop them from hurting her further, but the hand clasped tightly in his own held him back. Eren couldn’t do that to Mikasa. He couldn’t leave her alone, couldn’t get both of them into trouble. To Eren, no matter what, his sister came first. She had to.

 _I’m sorry,_ he thought miserably, furiously. _I’m so sorry, but I can’t save you. I can only save her._

So Eren bit his tongue and held back his voice, and watched as the men brought out some knives and started carving Petra’s skin to shreds. He watched as she jerked uncontrollably in their arms at the pain, as her screams and shrieks echoed in the basement, and mingled with the crying of the surrounding children forced to bear witness.

Eren didn’t cry, and he knew that Mikasa wasn’t either. They stood there side by side and pressed tightly together, and watched with dry eyes as some of the men torturing the police woman began to take turns raping her while laughing and tossing jokes back and forth.

Mikasa’s fingernails were cutting into the back of his hand and making it bleed. He relished the pain.

Finally, the woman seemed to get bored of the scene before her and they slit Petra’s throat, the last of her blood gushing out everywhere and staining the floor.

The sudden quiet after all of that previous noise was deafening.

“All right, show’s over. Get the fuck out of here.”

They had to escape. Somehow, Eren and Mikasa had to flee from this place.


End file.
